dreamscape
by songs
Summary: she plagues him; — eren ო annie.


**title: **dreamscape

**pairing: **eren ო annie.

**setting: **post chapter 50.

**summary: **she plagues him.

**disclaimer: **own nothing

* * *

Click.

"Annie."

_Clack._

"_Annie._"

Silence.

"This isn't funny anymore." His voice is bone-dry. "Stop."

Unblinking—lashes laced shut—she stares at him, through crystal lids. Prophetic-tongued, genie-eyed, jewel-boned. _Playing soldier in this shitty world._

A butterfly swallowed into a worm.

Click. _Clack. _The carving-blade in his hand goes dull, the diamond angles of the crystal beam back at him, unscathed.

His fist connects with the sheen of her cage, and a moment later the skin of his knuckles burns, and the bones feel bent out of place. "_Annie, _goddammit!"

Nothing.

"Don't," Punch. "Hide," _Crack. _"From," _Screech!_ "…This."

The scar-grooves of his hands go full with new blood, and he winces, sliding down the slope of her and onto his knees.

"You're not her," he hisses, into his hands. "You're not. You're not. She wouldn't…"

The words fall back, somewhere deep in his throat, as he looks at her, this porcelain-doll-girl, not a warrior, not a Titan, just skin and sleep and silence.

_Give up? _she goads_. I don't need you to give up. I need you to learn._

"What did you learn, Annie?" he asks. "What the _fuck _was it?"

He kicks the crystal; it does not bend. "Coward," he snaps. "Hypocrite."

"Time's up," Hanji informs him, and Eren spares one glance backward as he's led away.

X

_"You heal… quickly," Annie tells him one day, offhandedly. She speaks in her usual disinterested alto, but he catches the nuance of curiosity._

_"I guess." He shrugs, popping his shoulder. He fixes a mischievous glare on her. "It's probably a good thing. You almost dislocated it, last week. I think the nurse said a muscle was torn, too."_

_"Hn." She stands up from her stretches. "You keep asking to be my partner."_

_"And you keep accepting." He grins, form set._

_She readies her stance. "It's embarrassing," she says. "It seems as if I've taught you nothing. Fix your feet."_

_He obeys. "Watch out, I might just have you begging me for mercy this time—"_

_She interrupts him with a drop-kick to his knees._

X

"You need to stop this." Armin is adamant. "It's not healthy. I'll talk to Hanji—"

Eren snarls, "You don't get it! I need to… I…."

"You _what, _Eren?"

"I need to be there," is all he can think to say.

Armin's face doesn't soften. "You know what she is," he says, using Mikasa's words. "You saw it yourself. You've seen what she's done. There are a million things we need to worry about. You _know—"_

_"_But I _don't, _Armin." He hates the pleading sound in his voice. "I really, really _don't_."

X

_"Eren Jaeger," she calls out into the woods. "Where. Are. You."_

_"I dunno!" He yells back. "Why don't you come and find me!"_

_She digs her heels into the grass. "You're wasting my time. Stop hiding—"_

_He leaps down from the bottom branch of the tree above her, fists ready. Her eyes widen, and he waits for her to move out of the way, to dodge, or something—but she remains still in place, and—_

_He lands. On top. Of her._

_"Shit, Annie!" he curses, rolling off of her. Her eyes creak open into a glare, and he blurts, "I'm so sorry, I thought you'd move, I didn't—"_

_"Moron," she deadpans, standing up, refusing his proffered hand. "What was the point of that?"_

_"I wanted…" He suddenly feels very stupid. "To see your face. When you were surprised. I thought it'd be… funny."_

_"…Funny," she repeats, dryly. She doesn't look angry, he decides. But there's a mist glossing over her eyes._

_"Yeah," he says, following her back to the training grounds. "Funny."_

X

"Fight _back, _dammit!" he swears. The bandages around his palms begin to flake with blood, and he shivers. "What are you doing, Annie? What the _hell _are you doing?"

His fist breaks open and he drags his nails along the crystal, eyeing the blooming blood with a detached sort of fascination. "Why… just _why_?"

Annie looks right through him.

"This world is already fucked up," he rasps. "I'm," He looks at his red, red hand. Imagines the Titan-bones bursting from the scar-rivers, and shudders. "fucked up. And you…Annie… just…

Stop hiding. What's the point of this? Huh? Tell me, Annie?"

No answer.

"…This isn't… funny."

X

_Click._

_Clack._

_Click._

_Clack._

"Eren," Mikasa says. "Eren."

He blinks the haze out of his eyes, and glances at her. Her leg is propped up; she is leaning against the post of her hospital-bed.

"Yeah?" he asks.

"Wake up," she tells him. Not gently.

He blinks at her. "I already am."

She says it so quietly, he barely catches it: "You're not."

X

"Hey, Annie."

She says, "Hn?"

"You're up," he says. "Finally. You don't know how long…"

"How long you've what?"

"Nothing," he says, tilting his head. "Is it wrong?"

"What?"

"That I want to kill you?" A beat. "And that I don't?"

"…Wrong. That's a foolish word."

"I guess so. You sound like Armin." He leans back. "Armin… he. He thinks I should stop coming down here."

"Why is that?"

"Probably 'cause it's wrong. Oh, shit. That word again."

She doesn't speak.

"But, is it wrong? All of this? You kill them, I kill you, someone kills me. It's not Titan or human. It's just death."

"It's just a shitty world."

He doesn't look at her when he says:

"…but it can also be really beautiful."

"What?"

"Nothing. Just something someone told me once."

"…Eren. Why are you here?"

"I don't know."

"What do you want?"

"…I don't know."

"What do you _see_?"

"I don't—Annie, I…"

The crystal gleams back at him. Her lips are sealed. Her eyes are shut.

"…_oh._"

X

"Your hand," Mikasa says, staring at the bandages. "It's broken."

"…From a spar," Eren manages, remembering the jut of the crystal-edges into his skin.

X

The first thing he notices are the crystal-shards on the ground.

The next is the kick to the backs of his knees.

"A-annie!" he exclaims, as she looms over him, heavy-lidded, blue-lipped. "You're—"

She pulls back.

"I wanted to see your surprised face," she says, simply.

He feels her fingers press into a spot on his neck.

He does not fight back.

And then the world goes black.

X

He opens his eyes.

Annie dream-stares back at him, unsmiling, behind the bars of the gem.

The crystal is intact.

"Time's up," Hanji calls.


End file.
